Not as easy as it seems
by Millennium Star diamond
Summary: The Chief gets ill and the residents learn that administrating a huge Oasis and all its residents might not be as easy as they thought.
1. Save the pup

As the sun hid below the horizon, the colours of dusk began to fade away. In its place, dark shades of purple and blue appeared. The stars were starting to come to life, they sparkled and shimmered as darkness fell upon the land.

The last rays from the sun illuminated a quivering path on the water, where a small figure rested beside the water spring. A chilling breeze blew, making the leaves rustle and the little creature tremble and curl up even tighter around themselves, doing their best to conceal the precious heat inside their fragile and trembling body.

A sneeze escaped his lips and he rested his head back on the tree, laboured breathing becoming more even and tired blue eyes closing in a peaceful slumber, save for occasional coughs and sneezes that came on, never once, though, disrupting his sleep.

No more than a couple of minutes later a voice called out for him.

"Oi, Chief! We need help over the pinwheel shop!"

He saw a familiar seedling dressed in dark clothes and a golden monocle. It was Shakuro. He waved to get his attention and Tethu sluggishly waved back.

With some difficulty, he stood from his spot under the tree, immediately missing the warmth the quickly fading rays of the sun provided. Through unfocused eyes, he could make out Shakuro watching him expectantly. Without thinking much, Tethu obeyed his friend's request. Having grown used to helping the oasis' residents whenever it was needed. Sometimes, even when they didn't need it at all. It came with the job.

"Wake up sleeping beauty, we need your green gale."

Tethu snickered at his friend, a smile forming on his face. "Not yet! Still needing my true love's kiss." He kissed the air in his direction, faking an attempt to plant a kiss on the other seedling's cheeks.

"Ugh, nooo!" Shakuro laughed and playfully pushed Tethu away. "Yeah, yeah. Good luck on that," he said under his breath. "I can't see that happening anytime soon."

Tethu had a smile bright like the sun on his face. However, it quickly vanished, pained coughs having stolen its place. Shakuro's eyes widened in surprise. Thankfully, it didn't take long for the coughing to disappear and allowed him to regain his breath.

"Chief… you ok, man?" His voice was soft and uncertain. Still shaking from the sudden coughing bout, Tethu raised his head and nodded affirmatively, making sure to offer the most sincere smile he could. However, that did little to relieve the other's concerned gaze.

"You sure?…" Another nod. Shakuro pretended not to notice how he still trembled like a leaf. Tethu didn't waste a second to send Shakuro a, hopefully, reassuring smile.

"S-So… what were you needing me for?…" He said, hoping to change the subject. Shakuro eyed him with suspicion but decided to let it pass.

"Roto's leapard got stuck on top of Pami's shop… Again."

"Oh."

He let Shakuro lead the way. A cold wind howled as it gusted around the trees. Even before, when everything was still a desert, the nights were always cold and windy, so that wasn't anything new to them, but that didn't mean it felt any better.

"Geez, it's cold tonight…" Shakuro spoke faintly, wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to shield his own body. Behind him, Tethu whimpered as he nodded, his skin chilled from the unforgiving cold. He also had his arms around himself, but it had helped little.

If his throat hadn't felt so sore he would have corrected Shakuro. It was _**very** _cold that night.

...

Three seedlings stood in front of the pinwheel shop, each one of them was looking upwards at a small creature on top of the decorative pinwheels, it whimpered and called out for his owner. With every step it tried to take, the pinwheel spun a little, startling the poor animal into silence.

"Eh, two shops, three houses and a tree. It's a new record…" Jasper deadpanned.

"Oh, come on Jasper, you're not helping," Roto responded. Behind him, Pami gazed at both of them with concern. The latter raised his gaze at the leapard pup, his slightly concerned gaze quickly becoming one of fear as one of the leapards' paws slipped from the pinwheel.

Pami's heart stopped for a moment that felt like an eternity, his eyes widened in terror, he only had enough time to let out an alarmed gasp when it started to fall. Roto and Jasper rushed forward with outstretched arms, but they couldn't reach it. It's blue eyes filled with terror as it fell closer and closer to the ground, the seedling's best efforts weren't quick enough.

The small leapard let out a fearful squeak and closed its eyes, with heart pounding on its little chest, it braced for the impact.

An impact that never came. Instead, a strong gale with a beautiful green hue reached it just a second before it hit the ground. The wind broke it's fall, letting the little leapard down safely.

Roto let out a breath that he was holding and rushed to his pet, it was confused and scared, so as soon as it's big blue eyes met his owner's, it hopped straight to Roto's arms. Roto smiled as he held the little pup, softly stroking its fur. "Oh Gods, I almost thought… please Dayie, don't do that…" The pup, Dayie, whimpered in response, curling up tighter around itself and clinging onto Roto like their very lives depended on it.

Jasper also let out a shuddering breath, relief washing through him. Pami rubbed his eyes to get rid of a remaining tear, his heart was still pounding painfully inside his chest, but the sight of the two safe and sound calmed him down a little.

"Oh, dear is it alright?!" Shakuro exclaimed, startling the two. Behind him, Tethu stood with outstretched hands and letting out a relieved sigh, a weak breeze still flowing around him. Roto sent him a grateful smile.

"Thanks, Chief." His voice was soft and a single tear traced a line down his cheek. Tethu smiled back in response.

"Welp, good to know everything turned out well." Shakuro smiled brightly. "How about some tea to calm down? My treat!"

"Oh, no no! The poor thing got stuck on _my_ bloom booth, I should have checked it as soon as I heard the noise. Let me pay for it, it's the least I can do." Pami said, gaze filled with embarrassment and guilt.

"Oh, please don't!" Roto turned to him. "If there's anyone at fault here it's me, you don't have to have the trouble."

"Besides, we have to prepare for the festival tomorrow, we can't stay up too late," Jasper said. "I hate to be the party pooper, but…"

"It's fine, man." Shakuro laughed. "How about going to Evia's for some drinks tomorrow, then? It's gonna be crowded, but I heard she is going to make some special orders for the festival." He winked, earning excited smiles from his companions.

"Hey, Chief! You're coming too, right?" Jasper asked. Tethu smiled and nodded his head affirmatively.

"Yeah, sure!"

"Neat! See you guys tomorrow, then!"

After exchanging their farewells, the small group dispersed. Tethu smiled in anticipation, the following night was promising to be great. He was almost glowing in joy, but a couple of wet coughs interrupted his thoughts, he groaned and pressed his hand on his throat, feeling it sore and dry.

_Oh Gods, please don't tell me I'm gonna be sick tomorrow..._

...

As the sun hid away, the crescent moon came to light up the land, bringing stars that resembled diamonds scattered across the sky with it. With the night, also came music and laughter. The festival had begun.

Soft blue eyes watched the festival from a distance. They seemed to be having so much fun, but he wasn't feeling like joining them. Everything was so great, everyone, including him, had put so much effort into this, and while everyone enjoyed it and had fun, he wasn't in the slightest appealed by the so carefully planned event.

In fact, the music was horribly loud to his ears, but everyone else danced happily and while many enjoyed snacks and drinks, just the thought of getting anywhere near food made his stomach twist.

So, other than Khepri, who was currently curled up on his lap, he was left alone by the entrance gates, greeting anyone that came in through them.

For a festival, it surely wasn't his night, he really got sick after all.

He just hoped everyone else was doing better than him.

...

"Alright, you jerk, truth or dare?"

"Dare! Let's see what you got." Sakina and Mariah glared at each other with fervour.

"Ooh, this is gonna get good!"

"But are you sure these two aren't gonna murder each other?"

"Relax man, they're fine. You're worrying too much."

"If you say so..."

The showdown between the two became so ruthless the other races were starting to question the 'weak and friendly healers' stereotype for the seedlings. May the gods have mercy on whoever gets caught in a lie or failed their dares.

"I dare you to enter the Spirit shrine!"

"What?! Mariah are y-"

"Fine! I will do it!"

"Sakina?!"

"With my eyes closed too, just watch me!"

With that, the male seedling stomped past them and towards the Great Tree. While everyone stared at him in shock, Mariah huffed and glared with an unimpressed look. On that moment, they all remembered something Tethu had said just a day ago.

_"Can you guys not go near the Spirit shrine entrance? It's just for a few days, but if you could keep your distance for now, I'd appreciate it."_

Tethu had literally just told them to stay away from the shrine. Exactly what the young man was about to do.

"Oh dear…" Pami whimpered.

"Are these two crazy?!" Miura exclaimed. She rushed after the seedlings, in hopes of convincing them to quit with that childish bickering.

"Do you think the Chief will get mad at them?" Jamileh whispered to her brother. Shakuro pondered about it for a few moments before speaking, his voice becoming soft, but it still held concern. "Honest? I don't think he would, the Chief is a pretty chill guy, but that doesn't mean they're allowed to do that. And after Esna passed away too…"

They were unsure of what to do, some had followed the two seedlings to the shrine, others had decided to stay to avoid getting involved into that mess. But when they least expected it, Reuben came in running and shouted for everyone to hear. "Guys! He did it!"

With those simple words, hell absolutely broke loose.

...

"I can't believe you're actually doing this…" Miura spoke. Sakina, however, didn't pay that much mind, instead, he gave Mariah a victorious grin.

"I guess I win~." He said with a sing-song voice, earning an irritated growl from the girl.

He decided to ignore her for now. He took a better look inside the shrine, it was way more spacious than it looked, the water around it shimmered and formed many different patterns on the walls, but what really caught his attention were the small and colorful jewels that were adorning the place, together with the water they seemed to glow and fill the empty place with a beautiful show of coloured lights. He was sure those weren't there before, the Chief must've put these to pay respects to Esna. Regardless, it was a beautiful sight.

"Oh, Gods… GUYS! It's so awesome in here! You've GOT to see it!"

"It's not gonna be so awesome if Tethu green gales our butts out of this oasis!"

He rolled his eyes. "Relax, Isaac! Did he like, ever get angry at anyone?" With one last look inside the shrine, Sakina walked away, facing the angered librarian.

"You just disobeyed the Chief, broke into Esna's old home, started messing around her stuff and tried to get us to enter too. How disrespectful can you get?"

He turned to Mariah, who was pouting beside him. "And you too! What were you thinking?!"

"Hey! I _wasn't_ messing with her stuff! I didn't touch anything."

"Still, Sakina. Would it hurt for you two to stop this catfight? One of you could get hurt." Lili said.

He had to fight another eye roll but decided to let that one slide. He really wasn't looking for another fight.

With hurried steps, Sakina crossed the tree root that served as a bridge. He expected all of this to be forgotten by the end of the week, nobody would dare to tell Tethu about what happened, all of that would pass and everything will get back to how it was before. What he didn't expect was his foot to slip. Before he even realized what had happened, he had fallen in the frigid water spring.

It was so cold. He instinctively tried to reach the surface, but he had found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move. His limbs flailed, but it felt like he was going everywhere but up. Panic started to fill his heart, he started to reach for something that he could hold and pull himself upwards, but like all of his previous attempts at swimming, it was in vain. Each air bubble that swiftly floated upwards was a frightening reminder that his time was running out and the water that entered his lungs let him know of his fate once it did. The lack of air became agonizing and his vision slowly, but surely darkened.

Sakina shut his eyes and ceased his weak attempts to emerge from the water. It was impossible to see it, but he was crying. What a pathetic way to die, he thought. He had always been so sure once his time came, it'd be in an honourable way, or at the very least, peaceful, but no. The cold water on his skin and the life threatening situation he was in opened his eyes to his mistakes. Tethu was their leader and guardian, risking his life daily to protect and provide for them, but he had disobeyed him. Esna provided their water and gave up her life so they could be free from the Chaos, but he had disrespected her. His friends tried to warn him, but he not only shrugged them off, but fought with them. And now, he paid for his actions.

Without forces to fight, he had a lot of time to think as the water slowly drained his life away.

Up in dry land, there was nothing but panic.

"We have to get in!"

"There has to be another way!"

"He hasn't emerged yet! The time we're wasting arguing could cost his life!"

"Can't you see?! If you get in alone, you will drown too! We need something to pull you out-"

In the middle of the chaos, appearing like an angel sent from the heavens, Tethu dashed through them, determination shining in his eyes as he took a deep breath and dived in the spring.

The water was painfully cold, but he paid that no mind as he swam deeper and towards the pale and unmoving seedling at the bottom. Without wasting a second, he grabbed Sakina by his arm and pulled him towards the surface. He was limp in Tethu's hold and he seemed not to notice that he was being pulled up at all, was he too late?

No. He couldn't think like that. He had to fight, Sakina was alive, he had to be. He couldn't imagine what they'd do if he died.

_It will be my fault…_

_Again..._

...

They had never felt so incapable in their lives, their friend was drowning right in front of them and they could do nothing but wait and pray the Chief was able to reach him in time. They were all fearful, but Mariah was hurt the most, fallen to her knees, tears falling from her eyes as Levi and Kaela tried to comfort her, guilt fueling her fear for Sakina's life. Despite her behaviour earlier, she mentally screamed at herself for causing her friend's death.

When they were running out of hope, the two seedlings suddenly broke to the surface, between coughs, Tethu started to swim towards the dry land, carrying a nearly unconscious Sakina beside him. Both of them were welcomed by cheers and relieved smiles. Tethu softly whispered words of comfort to Sakina, who held onto him for dear life coughing and gasping for air.

"It's okay. It's okay now, you're safe."

Sakina whimpered, tears rolling down his cheeks as his body jerked with every cough. He could only vaguely hear Tethu's words, his voice was hoarse and strained, but it was still soothing to him.

Shakuro and Miura were the first to come to their aid, bringing the almost unconscious seedling to dry land. Soon, they were surrounded by most of the creatures that had attended the festival, from residents to noots, they were all trying to approach them, some bringing towels and dry clothes. Mariah was watching everything from afar, relief and shame written in her features.

Tethu watched everything unfold with a relieved smile as he pulled himself out of the water. As the adrenaline faded out of his bloodstream, exhaustion was quick to take its place and all of the energy he had in his body seemed to disappear. He felt beyond drained, every muscle in his body was paining him so much he didn't dare to move, but his chest, it felt like it was on fire. He had been feeling that pain for a couple of days before that, but it was like the dive in the spring made it ten times worse.

"Hey, Chief. Are you alright?" A voice soft like an angel's reached his ears, its owner was gazing at him, brows furrowed in confusion and worry.

It was Sol. "You don't look so good." The lagora added.

His first reaction would have been denying, saying that he was alright, he would have put up the comforting smile the residents knew him for, and said he was just tired from the long day plus a surprise swimming section in the spring. But the way his vision darkened and his chest felt numb from pain, it screamed; _'You can't pretend to be alright anymore!'_

"...I..." It was so hard to speak. His head felt light. "N-No..."

He vaguely felt Sol's paw on his shoulders and his voice calling his name with a fearful tone, but it sounded strangely muffled, like it was somewhere very far away. Darkness involved his body and swallowed up all sensations. He had no more strength to fight against it's power.

The last thing he felt was his body hitting the ground before the darkness engulfed his world.


	2. Poor child needs a break

Dark.

He was floating, surrounded by nothing but darkness. He had no idea for how long exactly, but it definitely felt like a long time.

There was something cold on his forehead. He wasn't sure what that was, but it had been put there not long ago. He doesn't like it. He's already feeling so cold, his sensations are numbed, but he knows he's shivering. Why is it so cold? What happened to him? Why is it hurting so much?

He doesn't want to wake up, he doesn't have the strength to do it. But eventually, the questions in his mind took the best of him and he forced his eyes to open. It wasn't an easy task, but eventually, he was conscious once again and his sensations returned. He grimaced when the light reached his eyes, closing them.

Slowly, he opened his eyes again, it took a few moments for his vision to focus. Beside him was Jamileh, sitting on a little stool beside his hammock, her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow. With her back resting on the wall, she slept peacefully.

He remembered the cold feeling on his head earlier, bringing his hand to his forehead, immediately noticing a cold and wet rag, as well as the absence of his headgear. Okay, now he was confused. He took the wet rag off and brought his hand up his head, feeling his hair completely exposed. Looking down, he saw that his usual attire was replaced by the lightest piece of clothing he owned.

Turning towards the young girl, he clumsily reached out and squeezed her hand, softly calling her name. The girl's eyes slowly cracked open and she turned to face him, her earth brown eyes meeting his dull blue. In that moment, the sadness in her disappeared, joy and relief made her eyes shine again and a bright smile formed on her face.

"C-chief! How... are you feeling?"

Either Jamileh was carefully balanced on the verge of tears or his illness was making him imagine things. His throat was still hurting, so he didn't try to speak, instead he offered her a nod and a soft smile.

Jamileh didn't speak. Instead she wrapped Tethu in a delicate but firm embrace. After a moment, the boy hugged her back.

A tear fell from her eye, making a wet path as it scrolled down her cheek. Soon, the young girl started smiling again. "I'll tell brother and the others."

She left hurriedly, almost forgetting to close the door on her way out.

The seedling sighed as he rested his head back on the hammock. He looked around, judging by the soft sunlight that entered the room, it should be early morning.

He still wasn't sure what had happened, all he remembered was the festival and the incident at the spring, everything after that was a blur. And the headache wasn't making things any easier.

How did he get so sick in the first place?

_'Was I really in such a bad shape?... Maybe I should take better care of myself...'_

"Yes. Yes, you definitely should."

Tethu almost fell out of his hammock in fear before turning towards the familiar voice. A single jade green eye gave him a concerned, yet firm glare, like he was trying to look angry, but couldn't hide his true emotions. The other eye was hidden away by white hair much like his. His figure was transparent and a soft aura emanated from him, but he knew the young man that was in front of him was a powerful spirit.

"O-Oh... Hey bro..." His voice was hoarse, but it would have to do.

"Don't 'hey bro' me," the spirit floated closer, crossing his arms and glaring down at him. "Do you have any idea of the situation you are in? If your friends weren't here to help you..."

That was it, that was the demanding tone of his brother that still sent shivers down his spine. The only time Nour ever uses that tone is when Tethu acted carelessly or pulled another crazy stunt. Even after the death of his mortal body, he still never seemed to miss the opportunity to scold his younger brother.

Seriously, what's with him and ghosts? He had always seen shadows and voices no one else could see since childhood, but ever since the adventure against the chaos, he and others had seen and talked to many spirits and ghosts just became something normal.

"Your lungs are not in the best shape. This could have been a small cold, but then you kept pushing yourself and look at what happened."

"Sorry..." He muttered, averting his gaze to the floor.

"Do you have any idea how worried everyone is about you right now? Not only in here, but in the spiritual plane too. Everything was fine and then we hear that you were ill and almost drowned together with one of the residents, everything was in such a ruckus the higher spirits had to personally come there to calm everyone down."

"I... I said I'm sorry..."

"Sorry isn't going to fix everything, Tethu." Nour answered. "Esna almost died a second time when she heard the news, she was so worried..."

At the mention of his beloved friend, he became quiet, heart filled with guilt.

"Why did you let it get this bad? Why didn't you rest when you weren't feeling well?" He had to fight to keep his voice from cracking. "This has to be the most careless-"

_"I did it for them!"_

Nour flinched away from Tethu, who grasped his throat in pain.

"T-They needed me... I... I can't just take a surprise vacation whenever... you of all people should know that..." Speaking was difficult especially after shouting like that, but he ignored the discomfort. "The festival needed to be organized_,_ there were pests in the gardens, Hosni wanted help gathering ingredients, Evia needed me to deliver nectar, Saeed needed materials, Miura wanted a sparring partner, Sol and Um were fighting, Roto's pet got stuck on Pami's shop... and then... Sakina..."

His throat was burning by the the time he was finished, he lowered his gaze and turned his head away. Nour gazed sadly at his brother.

"If you..." He coughed a few times. "If you came here just to scold me then go away..."

"Brother...?"

Silence.

"... Tethu, look at me please."

Nour's tone became softer, but Tethu still found it hard to look at him in the eye.

"I... I'm sorry for the things I said, I didn't mean to upset you." Nour spoke quietly. "I know you were working to keep the oasis going and everyone happy, but you can't forget about yourself either."

He floated closer to the young chief, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly. "I just... want you to live a long and healthy life, I want to see you running around and playing with your friends, laughing and living your life at its finest... not to be stuck in a bed because you overworked yourself. You got sick because your body was too exhausted to fight the illness properly." Nour explained, his voice was soft and he carefully chose his words as not to upset his brother any further.

Tethu nodded. He was going to answer when they heard what sounded like a small stampede coming from outside.

"Here they come... I have to go now. Take care little brother."

Tethu waved goodbye as Nour faded away from his sight. Moments later, the door burst open. Lili, Sol and Miura dashed inside the house, Shakuro, Jamileh and Isaac tagging behind them. He was immediately bombarded with questions, but they were all speaking at once so he couldn't understand a thing they said.

"Hey, hey! What did I tell you guys literally ten seconds ago? Give him space and don't get too close!" Isaac pretty much pushed them out of the way.

"S-sorry... it's just... I couldn't help myself." Lili spoke so quietly it was barely above a whisper.

"I know, but try to remember that, okay?"

He turned to Tethu, his gaze shifting to a more concerned one. "How are you feeling?"

The seedling in question nodded and offered a little smile. Isaac walked closer to him and felt his forehead, grimacing a little when he did so.

"Your fever is still high..." He took his hand away. "Do you feel any pain?"

Tethu nodded, gesturing to his chest, throat and head.

"I see... Well, this is normal for your conditi-"

"Can't you speak? like at all?" Sol interrupted, his eyes showing concern. He put his hand on his throat again, a pained expression on his face as he shook his head. The argument with Nour had busted his throat.

"O-Oh..." Sol's ears lowered, Shakuro patted his back reassuringly.

"Don't worry, you're gonna be up and running again in no time." Miura said while patting his back.

"I'm sure he will," Isaac said, sitting down on the stool next to the hammock. "But-"

"Oh, look the boss is awake!"

"Wait, seriously? I almost thought he was going to kick the bucket."

Isaac groaned at being interrupted again, he wasted no time in sending the two newcomers, a Serkha and a Lagora, a quick, annoyed glance. Tethu sent the Lagora, who turned out to be Aslar, an exasperated glare, which the clumsy warrior responded with an apologetic and awkward laugh.

"As I was saying," Isaac spoke louder. "Yes, he is going to recover soon. _However_, you are in absolutely no shape to work for the time being, so I suggest you to remain here."

Tethu nodded in understanding, remembering his older brother's words. That surprised the intellectual seedling as he expected the young chief to argue that he could still go out, but he was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he smiled and said. "It's settled then, we'll let you rest and come here every now and then to check on you. Remember to drink a lot of water and-"

"Wait!"

"What is it?!" Zak flinched by the dark tone Isaac used. The others sent him looks like he had just insulted the great Gods, it should have been common knowledge that Isaac has a short fuse when it comes to being cut off, and angry nerds are a hazard.

"I-I mean... Sorry... I-" He stuttered, growing even more nervous when the seedling's expression became even more exasperated, the looks shifted from shock to 'just say it already before he snaps!'

"Who's gonna take care of the Oasis?" The Serkha blurted out, sighing in relief when Isaac's murderous glare softened. Inconciously, they all glanced towards Tethu. This question was the enigma that they still had to find the answer. While they had spent a while by themselves, Tethu never left for more than a couple of days at the time. But this is definitely going to last for more than a day or two, as much as they wanted to believe the opposite, this was not something they could just wait out.

"We actually came here in behalf of everyone." Aslar said. "Since the festival was yesterday, most of the shops are out of stock and since we depend on the bloom booths for food and other supplies, we wanted to ask what we're going to do..."

There was a short pause before Shakuro responded "... We will organise everything together with everyone, this is not the first time we take care of ourselves, this is nothing we can't do."

This seemed to have lifted everyone's spirits.

"He's right, we can't just stand in here now, right? Miura said.

"Yeah! I mean, it's just deliver some stuff, clear the roads and help people if they need it, how hard can it be?" Sol laughed.

"Sure," Levi said, smiling. "we should be done by afternoon."

They glanced towards Tethu and their smiles immediately faded away, they were met by the most disappointed, unimpressed and offended glare they had ever seen, it was very intimidating to be honest, which was really impressive for someone with Tethu's size.

"Uh... okay boys, I think we should get going now, we got work to do, afterall." Lili said, successfully breaking the tension between them.

"Okay, we gotta go! See ya Chief, we're gonna check on you later. Call if you need help, alright?" Shakuro waved goodbye as he and Isaac urged the others out of the room. Tethu sighed, clearly still bothered by their last comment, but still waved and muttered a hoarse "bye" in response.

He knew he shouldn't have been angry at that, they're helping him so much afterall, but in his defense they had just brushed off the very job that drove him ill and forced to bed rest for the foreseeable future, he felt like he had the right to be at least a bit annoyed. A part of him actually hoped they'd struggle a bit here and there, the other part felt guilty for it. Okay that internal conflict was _not _helping with his headache. Groaning, he laid back down on the hammock and rested his head on the soft pillows.

It was the first vacation time he'd had since forever, he would not waste it worrying about things he couldn't control. He fell asleep surprisingly quickly after that.

* * *

**forgive me for the long wait, health issues and coronavirus halted most of my writing. **

**I hope to get back on track for this project and more! Expect more updates soon!**

**I honestly had fun writing the characters interactions with each other, Ever Oasis has so many characters and possibilities it's a shame it didn't get the attention it deserved. Since there's not a lot of character building in the game I had to add a few of my headcanons in to just spice things up a notch. **

**Tethu had always been able to see "apparitions" since he was young(er), but after the adventure to fight the Chaos, he had gained the ability to see and hear spirits much easier. (I already had this one before seeing the ending but now it doubles as a means to get Nour and Esna back you're welcome)**

**Despite their size and fragility, seedlings can be pretty violent when they want to be. **

**The entire Oasis shares two (2) brain cells and Isaac and Shakuro are hoarding them.**

**Tethu is kind but the living definition of petty, but also feels guilty of being petty to his friends.**

**That's all you really need to know about it lol**

**Bye!**


	3. The ghost mermaid says hello

"Woo! We're chiefs for a day, can you believe that?" Lili cheered, bouncing slightly with every step. Her usual warm smile was much more brighter and everything about her showed her excitement. Shakuro smiled back at her, although he was much less thrilled about all of this.

"Yeah... hopefully everything will turn out alright, you never know what you're going to deal with when the day starts." He kicked a pebble off the road and watched as it rolled through some flower bushes. The other seedling also stopped walking and gave him an incredulous look, tilting her head slightly, excitement vanishing and substituted by a confused frown.

"Aren't you excited? Even just a little bit?"

"Well, I mean, I already help the Chief with some things, so..." He shrugged.

"But have you ever administrated the _entire _Oasis?" Lili was practically glowing as she spoke. "This is an one time only experience! This will be so much fun!"

"Like keeping these nasty bugs out of the garden? I swear these are more annoying than some of the chaos monsters."

Both turned their heads at the familiar voice. Sol's ears were lowered and his tail dragged of the ground, his fur was disheveled and dirty with a few twigs and leaves hanging of it, the two seedlings winced as they saw the red marks of where the bugs had stung through his fur. Scratching his new battle wounds, the tired lagora made his way towards the duo, who offered sympathetic looks. With the desert and Chaos gone, many problems were solved, but several new immediately took their place. They had never seen so many animals around before, but their populations were booming thanks to the large amounts of food, water and lack of giant bloodthirsty monsters trying to corrupt them. That meant they could see hundred of colorful birds and butterflies everyday, but also hundreds of hungry creachers trying to feast on their crops.

Hundreds of hungry creachers that bite. A lot. In fact, it was only thanks to his fur that he escaped that hellish battlefield with only half a dozen stings. They weren't sure why these bugs in particular were so insistent, but they'd be left with nothing to eat soon if they let their guards down.

"Did you manage to shoo them off?" Lili questioned, concerned.

Sol responded with a nod, groaning as he scratched his arms. Why did the have to itch so much?

"Actually, I was going to ask you if you knew how the Chief did this? I heard about it, but I didn't think these were actually so aggressive..." Sol picked a couple of leaves from his fur as he spoke. Lili tried to recall anything that could help, she did meet Tethu while he was on his way to the gardens a few times as he had to pass by her bloom booth, but otherwise he never shared the secret with dealing with those pests. He neither carried anything with him, nor wore anything to serve as protection, she never really stopped to question herself that before, it just never crossed her mind.

She shrugged and turned towards Shakuro, who was still holding his chin and looking down, a concentrated frown on his face.

"I think he just uses his green gale? I mean, bugs hate wind, right?"

"Well, we don't _have_ a green gale. In fact, we have no wind at all!" Sol responded, wildly gesturing to the plants around them, exasperated. True to his words, none of their leaves were rustling, only the occasional weak breeze flowed by occasionally. Honestly, they couldn't blame him for being snappy after facing a hundred or so enraged winged stingers all by himself.

"I remember Tethu mentioned something about smoke? Apparently there's a smell those insects absolutely hate, I think it's some kind of flower?" Shakuro looked up, still looking focused on his thoughts, "although I do believe he uses wind..."

"... I...I didn't wanna bother him," he winced, looking down at his arms and legs, the small red dots were more irritated now, surely thanks to his constant scratching, but he couldn't help it, "but I don't think I can handle another day of _this."_

"We should probably let him rest for a while, his fever was really high and I'm sure the bugs will take a little while to return at least." Lili delicately placed her hand onto Sol's shoulder in a reassuring manner. Her words brought some hope for the lagora, it wasn't enough to lift his mood by much, but at least his frown softened a little. He was about to reach out to the red spots again, but Lili held his hand firmly, shaking her head before letting it go. She was right, they both were, but these were so painful and itchy, he was starting to think maybe he was allergic to their venom. They better find someone else to do this.

"Yeah...you guys are right, sorry." He accompanied the two on their walk at their invitation. The other residents went on with their days, talking, selling, buying, playing... although no one could deny the atmosphere wasn't nearly as light as usual, many shops were closed and out of stock, rumors were being spread left and right, many chores still needed to be done, and that was only the beginning of the list.

Some of the plants were wilting as well, they weren't sure why but many of their plants around their homes were beginning to die. No matter how much care they gave to them, their health would gradually deteriorate until their previously bright green leaves became brown and collapse to the ground. The Oasis really had seen better days, maybe there was something wrong with the soil, or the pests were also giving the other trees a hard time. They'd have to keep an eye on those.

"There's nothing to apologize for, I really wouldn't want to deal with that either." Shakuro smiled as he lightly elbowed Sol on his good(ish) arm.

"Still, we need to find the others so we can organize ourselves...wait who else is helping run the Oasis again?"

"You; Sol; Miura; Levi; and me. Although Isaac suggested we bring Mariah and Sakina along to make up for the mess they made last night."

They went quiet at the mention of the two. Sol and Lili shared an uncertain glance before looking back at the wise seedling, who either didn't notice the others' change in demeanor, or did a great job at pretending not to see anything. It's not that they were mad, well...maybe they were a little bit, that was a very stupid move of their part, but it was more disappointment than anger. They weren't the ones that they owned an apology to anyway.

A black and white noot chirped and waved their short little wing towards them, they were carrying several bags filled with all sorts of goods that could be bought at the Oasis, the little bird was barely able to carry all of those at once.

"Good morning! Hope you enjoyed your shopping!" Lili smiled as they returned the noot's greetings. These little fellas were always in a good mood after a long and expensive shopping session.

"O-Okay, so...back to what we were talking about..." Shakuro quickly urged their attention back to their original subject, scratching the back of his head. Lili raised an eyebrow at the seedling's odd behavior, for some reason Shakuro seemed to be unnerved whenever they crossed paths with the cute little birds. It's strange, it's like he suddenly developed a fear of noots in the span of a single night, but she shouldn't pry. "I say we need to gather everyone and organize ourselves, doing everything randomly is asking for a disaster to happen."

"Yeah... everyone kinda ran off when we finished talking with the Chief."

"Okay, so next step: find Miura and Levi! Let's go!" Lili ran ahead, the bright and determined smile she was known for was back on her face. The boys couldn't help but smile at her antics and follow her as she interrogated every passerby for Miura's and Levi's whereabouts.

They might just be able to do this.

* * *

One thing about bookstores is they were holders to written masterpieces, the sacred guardians of knowledge. If not for these books, all the information their ancestors had gathered could be at risk of being lost forever, this assured the next generations would be able to understand the world much better than they did. It was truly an honor to be a librarian, it wasn't unlike being the guardian of the most precious of treasures, one people did not give nearly as much credit as it deserved.

Isaac hummed as he cleared off the dust of some of his books, he closed the library for the day to clean it, those days in particular were always slow so he took advantage of it. He placed the hardback back into its rightful spot and returned to his desk, smiling proudly at his work. There was still plenty to do, but he was already way ahead of his schedule, he could afford a little break. Sitting back and relaxing with a nice cup of coffee, he smiled longingly just at the thought of it.

Through the corner of his eye, he saw a particular large book that was carelessly tossed aside. He was actually the culprit of this, but he was at a hurry at the time, so he forgave his past self. The page displayed several paragraphs of written text as well as a few ink illustrations, all about all known diseases similar to a cold. He frowned as he gave the page a more throughout read, he had already read it several times just between last night and this morning, he had the ability to remember anything he's ever read with ease, but he still couldn't help making sure he hadn't skipped anything. So far everything was pointing towards either a particularly bad flu or pneumonia. Isaac would usually take great offense at being proven wrong about something, he took great pride at his studies and readings, but whenever he read that description and saw the ill lungs drawn in ink, he welcomed the idea of being wrong with open arms.

Especially when his eyes found that warning in red ink at the bottom of the page.

Massaging his temples, he closed the book and carried it back to its original place, struggling a little with how large and heavy it was. Tethu defeated skilled warriors several times his size, got rid of the chaos whenever it invaded the oasis, not even the Chaos itself could handle that excitable sprout, he could get through this no problem. The bookseller took a large calming breath and started to make his way to his kitchen. He needed to something to calm his nerves.

"Are you sure you're not forgetting anything?"

"Well, I don't think so. Why?" It took a few seconds for it to register in his tired mind, but eventually his eyes widened as much as they could as he quickly turned his head towards the intruder, he let out a startled yelp and almost knocked down an entire stand as he fell down, hopefully a horrible disaster was avoided, but a couple of books still fell on top of his head. An amused giggle reached his ears, he looked up to see a tall, transparent figure hovering above the ground, hands behind her back as she gazed down at the seedling, a tiny innocent smile on her pale blue face.

"Are you okay?" She asked with genuine concern, but she was still stifling a laugh. Isaac sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, then let out a partially relieved, partially exasperated breath.

"I'm never getting used to this..." He mumbled as he picked the fallen books and placed them back on the shelf.

"I don't think anybody ever does." Esna smiled warmly as she floated towards him, lowering herself and bending her tail as if she were sitting down. Isaac massaged the back of his head, it was a little sore but hopefully it wouldn't bruise. "So...as I was saying, are you sure you aren't forgetting anything?"

"No?" Oh for the Gods, why couldn't ghosts just cut to chase instead of being all vague and ominous?

Esna's ears lowered slightly and her smile made way to a worried frown. "The Oasis, silly. We are all worried about Tethu, but what about the Oasis? We can't just leave them."

"I thought Shakuro and Lili were already on their way? Also I think either Sol or Nubit went to chase the bugs out of the crops..." As far as he knew the chores were already being taken care of, so he wasn't worried about that.

"Yeah but is that enough? Many shops are still out of stock; there are crops to harvest; roads to clear..." Esna counted on her fingers, her tail twitching slightly. Isaac hadn't met Esna more than a couple of times before, most of her appearances were at candy and toy stores and harassing unaware residents by splashing water on them randomly. It was all in good nature and people often had a blast with it, but he avoided the spring as not to be her next victim, paper and water did not mix. Esna was usually the happy and friendly bundle of joy, less confident than Tethu, but just as playful, it was odd to see her so annoyed. Apparently being enraged whenever the words "managing"; "oasis" and "easy" were put in the same sentence was not exclusive for the Tethu...he was starting to get nervous about this.

"I know you guys are trying very hard, but there are so many things to do and is easy to get overwhelmed. Me and Tethu used to keep a list of things that we need to do, we... barely ever managed to stick by it, but it did help a bit!" She floated towards his desk, picking a few blank papers and a pen, she struggled with it a bit, groaning as her hands phased through the paper the first few times before she finally managed to get a hold of the objects and hand them to the waiting seedling.

"First we need to make sure everyone has something to sell! Then clear the roads and get rid of any trash or weed, trust me these grow super fast... I wish I were exaggerating. Oh! And we can't forget about delivering things and also to collect the dewadems..."

Isaac was _really _getting nervous about this. Keeping an Oasis of this size running smoothly was a lot of responsibility, but they would have to manage... hopefully the next few days wouldn't be _too _chaotic.


	4. Many minds, many opinions

"May I ask where have you been?"

Sea blue eyes averted down to the clear water, her arms slowly wrapped around her torso as she usually did when nervous. She didn't respond for a few moments, it was clear they already knew the answer to that question, the young spirit knew that conversation would come sooner or later, but yet she felt far from prepared for it. She never thought she was good at doing things by herself…

The figure behind her patiently waited for her answer, elegant white clothes almost appeared to glimmer against the soft sunlight. Well, they called it "sunlight", but they all knew it wasn't exactly the sun they were used to back at the mortal plane, that was a whole new dimension, a new plane, accessible only for those spirits that no longer were tied to a vessel. The spiritual plane was... something so odd, yet strangely nostalgic.

"... I was… making sure they were doing alright." Not too far, a group of children played tag on the garden of flowers and fruits, laughing and smiling, completely uncaring of their differences or stories. It pained her to know all of them passed away so early in their lives, most starved to death or were eaten by bigger creatures. She… felt glad that she was part of change for something better. That the next few generations would arrive much older than this one… hopefully, at least.

"Esna, we both know that is a half truth." Their words made Esna wince, her ears dropping ever so slightly. Earth brown eyes gazed up at her, even if she was half submerged in the water, she was still slightly taller than the spirit, who often chose the form of a middle aged, male seedling.

"I… I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be going there so often but… I…" She sunk into the water even further, now reaching the same height as the guardian. Take a deep breath, she told herself, just speak from your heart. "I… I was always bound to my spring… I could never see those things or go places, or talk to people and… be seen. Well… most of the time."

The Guardian appeared to be more satisfied with this answer, they nodded, offering a reassuring smile, despite their efforts it relieved her tension only a little bit, but she felt thankful regardless. "Talking to the Chief was great and all, but you always want to meet other people… now I can… now I can splash them, play with them, cheer them up when they're down, or even just help them find that shoe they lost. I felt free, in a way. And I thought… since I just had to wait to reincarnate… I could… spare a visit or two?...or three…"

They both went quiet for they knew that was way more than just one, two or three visits. The actual number was 56, counting with today's misadventures, but it was better to leave that part out for now.

"Well, it's good that you care about the Oasis, my dear, but we both know it's unhealthy for a spirit to be in the mortal plane without a vessel for too long." His words made the young water spirit to sink even further down, now only her nose and above were not submerged yet, but she might actually disappear in the depths if she felt anymore like a little kid getting scolded by their parent.

They were about to continue when something suddenly felt off, only a single syllable had the chance of leaving their lips before they began to look around. There was nothing out of order at first glance, birds chirping, children playing, the same two drauks arguing again over who had the most honorable death… everything was just as any other day. They'd have to have a talk with the others, maybe some lost soul taken by sorrow was causing trouble again. It wasn't uncommon, they deal with those rather often, less often now, but it still wasn't too uncommon. It was only natural.

"... Esna, you're still allowed to visit the Oasis," the water spirit immediately perked up, raising out of the water just a little bit. "-but, for your own sake, refrain from doing so until next month. You'll be given a set number of passes per week like everyone else." She deflated again, not as much as before, but still downcast.

"Now, I'll have to take my leave. Take care of yourself, alright?" The seedling stood up from their spot by the shore and began making their way back to… wherever the high spirits work at, Esna never really stopped to question where they went, maybe she should ask next time they meet one of them. All she knew was that they watched over the mortal and spiritual world, like some sort of guardian angels or administrators depending on the angle you see it. The longer you spend there, the more you realise life is… complicated for the lack of a better word. Esna waved back at them, forcing a smile. When they were far past hearing distance, she sunk completely into the clear lake, swimming past fishes and aquatic plants she had never had the chance to see in her past life.

"Heya, Esna!"

"Hi, Dana!"

And also meet other water spirits, that was a dream come true. This place was nice enough, a bit monotonous, but nice regardless. Yeah, she could wait a month to see the Oasis, she got this, it would be a piece of cake! The month would pass by before she even knew it, all she had to do was find something to entertain herself with and try to forget the fact her best friend was stuck on a bed with a fever going through the roof, while the residents were trying to run the Oasis all by themselves unsupervised, where so many things could go wrong and there would be no one to help them.

_… Oh boy, that went downhill fast…_

"Dana!" Esna exclaimed, making a sharp turn back towards the other girl, swimming so quickly she caused a small current that scared the poor fish that were swimming by. "Help me distract myself, I made a mistake!"

The other water spirit, skin a different shade of blue, almost a light purple, short hair and pink eyes halted her peaceful swimming session to look back to her friend, who looked haunted. "What? What did you do?"

"I was alone with my thoughts, help!"

She needed to do something to forget her worries, thankfully Dana received her distressed heart with open arms, despite not fully understanding what she meant by that. It's, okay, she'd given them that list, they do just fine. They could handle themselves for a day or two. They didn't need anymore help.

* * *

_Oh, Gods, please help us… _

Shakuro sighed in dismay as he massaged his temples, trying to block out the absolute mess that was the fountain plaza at the moment.

"Come on, we need to restock the shops first, soon we'll run out of food and people will starve!" Reuben stated, which gained several nods in agreement from other residents, mostly the serkhas.

"Not just the food shops, Reuben, the last festival was novelty themed, remember? These are the ones that need the most restocking." Sol argued, his ear twitching in annoyance. Most of the lagoras and some seedlings agreed with him, but the general opinions were divided. They all knew what needed to be done, actually doing it wasn't supposed to be as hard as this.

"Shouldn't we go out to get supplies first? I mean… whatever we choose to do, we can't do much without supplies."

"Lili's got a point, let's make a party to search for stuff! Anyone else volunteer?" Aslar's words were followed by several hands being put up, some were already pulling out their weapons, excited for some action. Despite the fact only a select few were chosen to run the place, more and more soon joined until pretty much all the residents were hopped in somehow. Which was good, they now had many more hands to help! On the other side, that also meant more diverging opinions and ideas.

"Uh, guys? Shouldn't we also clear these roads?" Pami's quiet voice urged their attention towards the mess that was still left over from the previous night.

"But restocking was at the top of the list Esna gave us, we should probably do it first."

"Is it in priority order? Because "trade with merchants" was above "patrolling" and I am pretty sure checking for danger is more important than trading."

"Why can't we just do all of these instead of one by one?" Miura successfully gained the attention of the many residents, smiling, the drauk warrior elaborated her idea for them. "They're all important in one way or another. Instead of just a few people doing all the work, if you see something that needs to be done, just do it."

The people whispered and murmured amongst themselves, contemplating, then after a few seconds they expressed their opinions with excited nods and thumbs up. That did sound like it could work. At least it was way better than spending two or more hours arguing about what to do next.

"Okay so we go restock the food shops, Sol goes with the other shops, Lili, Aslar and whoever else goes to gather resources, and… Shakuro you didn't say anything, so do whatever, I guess." Levi shrugged and started walking away towards the bloom booths, several other people followed him.

"Wait..uh.." Jamileh's quiet whisper was unheard by most of the dispersing crowd, being lost in between the other much louder voices. Shakuro and some very few people who were close enough to hear her call turned towards the shy seedling, who was struggling with having something important to say and not wanting to be in the spotlight. "I...I have a list… of what the shop owners need… I… helped the chief… I can help…" Her eyes were downcast as she was mostly unheard by her peers.

"Well, they already left…" Hanoch stated just as quietly as the young girl, watching the rest of the residents leave to their respective tasks. Well, at least they made some progress in comparison to the mess that was that early morning.

"I know, give me the list and I will pass it on to the folks who are going out to gather resources so they know what to bring." Shakuro held his sister's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Hey...Uhm, you guys? Do you really think we can do this?" Pami and Roto walked towards them, concerned looks on their faces. Roto's pet leapard was safely tucked in his improvised baby carrier, so the hyperactive little thing wouldn't cause much trouble, for now, at least.

"I mean, I know we can figure it out and there's no use in being negative, but this was so sudden."

The pinwheel artisan was right, it was very sudden and they barely managed to make any proper planning at all. They spent the entire morning arguing and discussing the next step, but it seemed like everyone had a different opinion on how the Oasis should or shouldn't be run. What appeared to be the simplest part of the day turned out to take most of the morning.

They could only hope things would go a bit more smoothly than this.

"We….have to try?" Hanoch scratched the back of his head, "better than doing nothing at all...right?"

Jamileh nodded, still looking downcast. "They're ...right... I'll... I'll give you the list." She smiled at her brother, who watched her walk away towards their home. If she had looked back she would have seen Shakuro frown in worry, something didn't feel quite right, that smile was a bit too saddened and disappointed. He knew his sister would want to help more than just giving a list. Hopefully the others would remember that they didn't have to go door to door to restock everything and they had someone to make that much easier right in front of them.

"Yeah...you guys are right. We can't stay here all day, there's work to do." Thankfully, his words seemed to offer the remaining residents a semblance of reassurance. Worry and nervousness was still present, but it was only natural in such a strange, new situation.

They had faced so much worse, not even the actual Chaos descending its wrath on them was enough to take them down, even if their priorities were a bit...messy to say the least, they would eventually figure this out, they'd survive.

Although "doing whatever" as Levi put it was probably not a good mindset when trying to keep such a large place like this in order. The desert hadn't seen a group bigger than 50 people in one place for decades, maybe even centuries, there was barely enough food and water in a region to sustain that many, anyway. This was a new experience for everyone… although it would be so much easier if they could agree on something for once.

"Hey, Shakuro! The team is ready!" Aslar's voice snapped him out of his train of thought, he really had spaced out… he was worrying too much.

"I'm getting there! I'll just go get the list of things that you guys will need to prioritize."

"Hurry!"

At least everyone was helping….well, except for Mariah and Sakina. He hadn't seen the two since yesterday night. All he knew was that the young man had also fallen ill from the water spring's cold waters, not as bad as the chief, but still fairly under the weather. He did nearly drown. As for Mariah… she had kind of disappeared, not even Levi could find the stubborn girl. They couldn't lie that they were a bit upset at their actions and the unnecessary commotion they caused last night, but there was no use in being angry at them when neither expected this to happen.

"Hey, Jam, did you see Mariah anywhere?"

"Uhm… no, I don't think I did… she seemed so upset…" his sister's quiet voice answered him as she handed him the list that she had so carefully crafted after all her time restocking bloom booths. Oh well, she was bound to appear at some point, she wouldn't leave her shop and Levi alone for too long.

"If you see her around, tell her to come help us pick up some materials if she's not busy, we're sending a lot of parties to get this done with sooner rather than later. The festival did sell very well, but it did end up in a shortage of things to sell.

"Will do… hey… brother?"

Shakuro was about to run off to the waiting party, by some miracle he had picked up on her quiet tone. Even after so many years, it was hard to hear his dear sister's voice. "Yeah?"

"Who is… going to take care of the dewadems?"

Shakuro almost paled at her words. Of course they had to be forgetting something, especially something as important as this and that couldn't be trusted to just any person. With so many shops completely out of stock and straight out of a festival, it was only natural for there to be many dewadems. Enough to make many people feel compelled to take one...or two...or three…

"I… do not know." He already had enough on his plate with organizing the material gatherings and making sure these idiots did not fight each other to death before the first day ended. His eyes shifted to Jamileh and he had a smile on his face again. "Say, Jammy, you up for the task?"

She froze, startled, her poor mind rushing with so many thoughts she could barely keep up. "M...me?!"

"You're the most trustworthy person I know. Well, if you're up for it, of course." Her brother's smile reassured her a bit, it was a very important task and that he trusted her to do it did make her feel a bit special, appreciated. She couldn't help but give a small smile of her own, which she automatically hid by force of habit.

"Aw, come on, where's that cute little smile?" The wise seedling leaned in a bit, faking intrigue. The younger sibling giggled even more, playfully shoving her brother away, she was still smiling.

"Silly." With that, both siblings went on with their respective tasks. Jamileh holding the biggest bag she owned to collect the precious gemstones. She did feel a bit better by helping like this, she would be lying if she said she didn't feel even a bit thrilled by the new task. That didn't mean she wasn't absurdly nervous and anxious, but the young seedling girl welcomed it with open arms.

"Morning, Evia… do you… have dewadems?"

She was... trying her best. Thankfully the older girl was more than happy to lend her a hand. With a nod and a smile, she reached out behind the counter and pulled out a medium sized bag almost completely full with the little blue gems. Jamileh would probably end up having to empty her bag soon before going out again… wait, where should she drop these off again?

Was she supposed to administer the money too? Not giving into the ever growing anxiety was one of her hardest battles yet, but her brother was counting on her, she needed to at least try.

"Say, I was getting a bit worried about this whole dewadems thing," the seller spoke up before she could leave," but I'm glad you're the one doing it!"

She couldn't help but fluster at her words, hiding her face and consequently her grateful smile. "I… I mean… t… thank you."

Evia giggled at her reaction, waving goodbye. "No problem! Good luck, Jamileh!"

One day, Jamileh would find the secrets of the hidden and lost art of how to handle compliments properly. It would be a perilous journey beyond everything she knew, expanding her horizons and training her mind and heart to counter the most powerful weapon yet: genuine compliments. But that day was not today, so she continued to hide her face as she walked out of the shop and into the other, slowly gaining a bit more experience and talking a little more with each shopkeeper. Just a little bit, but it was progress.

Meanwhile, she passed by a group of people who volunteered to clean the roads up, the mess from the previous night was being quickly cleared up, the decorations taken down and folded up for future use. It was good to see everyone doing some progress, and that despite having diverging ideas, they could still work together. Confidence renewed, she opened the door to the music box shop.

"Morning, Potipan… do you have dewadems to-"

Said seedling was emptying his own dewadems into a bag brought by a green serkah wearing light blue clothes, seedlings and serkah froze as they stared at each other, the gears in their minds turning, the bags felt so much heavier all of sudden.

"I… thought you were the one collecting these?" The music box artisan looked up to Yahya, whose skin got just the slightest bit paler. He nodded quickly, putting his hands up.

"I am! I...I mean, Miura asked me if I could do it and… since I wasn't doing anything…"

Their eyes turned towards the girl, who shared Yahya's dread. Oh gods, why? She had to say something to them at least.

"Uh...s...Shakuro...t...told me to…" This was a mistake and the awkward silence that followed her words only served to prove it. The serkha's quiet voice snapped her out of her train of thought before she bolted her way out of there and back home.

"W-Well, you can do it… you can do it much better than me anyway, look at your bag, I mean...Ugh I've been talking for too long." He shook his head, gaze lowered to the ground as he realized just how pathetic his attempt at resolving that tension truly sounded.

"N-No! I...I...look you have so many...you are doing a good job…"

"Why... don't both of you do it?" Potipan's slightly awkward smile gave them some resemblance of reassurance, "you both seem like you're pretty good at this."

Jamileh and Yahya shared a glance, eventually she smiled as warmly as she could, he scratched the back of his head, but also offered her a smile of his own.

"Well...if it's okay with you?"

"Of course!... Let's go?"

The tense atmosphere faded, now the three wore relieved smiles as the two walked away together, showing each other which shops already had already had their dewadems collected and which still awaited for them.

"Bye, Potipan!"

"See you!"

The seedling let out a relieved sigh, adjusting the bag on her shoulder as she followed the serkah into the remaining bloom booths. True, this wasn't the smooth ride they hoped it would be, but they would figure out a way to resolve those bumps in the road.

* * *

**Or will they? :3**


	5. Someone help these poor disasters

**Thanks to my greatest friend, Mini, AKA Cook uncle, for beta reading this for me lmao**

* * *

There were many things they were still not used to. All themselves, their parents and grandparents and their parents before them had ever known was the dry, scorching heat of the desert. Hours and hours of merciless sun that was followed by winds so cold there was a risk of losing fingers and ears to frostbite. They were used to travel days upon days in search of any drinkable water, of throwing themselves in Chaos infested areas and risking it all, hoping to be able to get some food… or perish trying.

Esna's sacrifice would be forever down in history, a tale told by them to their children about the hero that sacrificed their mortal body and filled the wasteland with life once again. The meadow that is now their home was nothing like anything they'd ever known, so it was bound that there would be many surprises, sudden changes and new challenges. They'd need to adapt to the new world they've long since forgotten how to live in.

One of these surprises was just how much rain they were having. Rains were something so rare, they'd hold a festival showing their thankfulness to the gods whenever they graced the dry earth with precious water. Imagine their surprise when it rained, and then rained again almost two months later. Normally, there was at least a year long wait before another drop fell from the sky, but that wait was slowly shortening itself, it was still so irregular and no one, not even their wise elders had any clue what to expect.

In that morning, the sunlight was hidden behind dark clouds, the winds picked up their usual pace, accompanied by the roar of thunder. The sudden flashes of lighting startled more than just a couple of folks, most preferring to stay safely hidden away in the shelter of their homes. The electricity dancing on the clouds was mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time, something the folks would love to watch as long as there was a good distance between them and the currents.

A faint knock on the wooden door made the Lili jump, placing the book she was reading down on the coffee table and walking to the front door. Strange, she wasn't expecting visitors today, and there was barely anyone out at the time. Frowning in suspicion, Lili hesitated, her hand just barely touching the handle.

"Who is it?"

"...Lili? It's Mariah... and Levi is here too."

Her eyes widened, a surprised gasp escaping her lips as she undid the lock and opened the door. The inseparable pair stood before the doorframe, the Serkha was holding a large parasol in his hand to avoid being soaked by the rain, but their shoes were still covered in mud. In her hands was a small bag that she held with all the care in the world, like there was a rare and fragile treasure inside. Mariah's troubled frown and Levi's reassuring smile helped snap her out of her shocked state and step aside as she opened the door fully.

"Oh dear, you two are soaked, come in."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't it ruin your floor?"

"No, it's fine! Some mud isn't going to kill anyone." Lili responded, her lips curving in a kind smile as her two friends walked in, closing the parasol outside before leaning it against the wall. Mariah placed her bag on the floor beside her before joining Levi in taking off her muddy shoes to avoid ruining the floor more than they already did.

Lili found the silence coming from them rather strange, it wasn't often that both would be so quiet, especially Mariah.

"I was... wondering if…" Mariah cleared her throat and averted her gaze down, hazel eyes searched around, but never dared to look at Lili in the eye, "...you could help me with something."

"Oh? I mean, sure! What do you need?" Despite her surprise, the fruit seller was sure to offer them a kind and gentle smile in hopes of making Mariah more comfortable so whatever it was that she needed to ask wouldn't be so difficult for her. When she tripped over her words even after that, Lili decided to break the silence.

"Do you want to sit down? I still have some tea left." She urged them in, gesturing to her kitchen, from where a pleasant scent came from.

"Oh, uhm… thank you." Mariah sighed, looking like she didn't quite want to agree, but Levi was already agreeing and on his way to the delicious tea, almost forgetting to thank Lili for it, which made the Seedling laugh in amusement.

"Thanks, Li! You're the best!"

"...sorry about him." Mariah's irritated groan received an amused giggle from Lili as she assured the other that it was just fine.

"Anyways…" The tension rose again, and Lili's laughter faded into an expectant silence. Mariah reached out for the bag she had been carrying and brought it to the nearest chair at Lili's permission. The Seedling opened it and pulled out its precious contents. Lili has always been a "cute things" kind of girl, she was often teased by her friends for running around after Leapards and Tigrets in hopes of being able to pet them. It should come as no surprise that she squealed out loud at the plushie Mariah showed her, black and golden fabric sewed in the shape of a mythical creature, two pointy ears on top of its head and a thin and long tail curved behind it, whiskers painted silver contrasted with the black fabric of its fur, green slitted eyes made for a sharp, yet charismatic look.

"Awwww! Mariah, it's adorable!" She carefully picked the plushie and gave it a light squeeze, finding it was very soft and pleasant to hold. She wasn't very knowledgeable in the toys department, that was the Lagora's job, but if she had to guess by the fabric and stuffing and how each detail was carefully sewed by hand, she would assume it was of high quality materials.

"Heh, thank you." Said Seedling smiled a bit for the first time since she had entered the house, but still refused to make eye contact, keeping her eyes on the toy instead. "Worked all day yesterday for this little guy."

"Oh, so that's where you were?" She didn't mean anything bad by it, just plain curiosity, but she immediately realized it didn't sound nearly as innocent as it did in her mind. She stuttered, squeezing the toy a bit more.

"I-I mean,...you… did a great job! I love how you made the eyes." In an attempt to save them both a very awkward interaction, she shifted subjects as she offered the plushie back to her, laughing nervously.

Mariah, understandably, flinched at her words and her smile faded away as she wordlessly took the toy back, frowning and making that one face she always did when she was feeling guilty but didn't want to admit it, trying to look angry instead. Not that it ever worked, despite her efforts.

"..."

An even more awkward silence stretched out between them, Levi quietly sipping some tea in the kitchen and the droplets of rain hitting the roof were the only sounds that kept them from a near absolute silence. Lili winced at the situation she created for them, fiddling with her fingers as she desperately tried to think of something to say, almost regretting giving the plush back just so she would have something to do with her hands.

"It's for the Chief." Mariah stated without any warning, which startled Lili and almost made her jump.

She was stunned for a moment, she returned her gaze to the toy that she just found out was actually a gift, it stared back at her with cute and charismatic slitted eyes. Then her lips curved into a smile, she finally looked up to meet Mariah's eyes, who for the first time, did not shy away from her.

"Aww…" it was so sweet, Lili couldn't help but squeal again,a warm feeling on her chest. She didn't know it was her smile that made the other smile as well. "It's perfect! He's going to love it."

"...eh, he loves everything we give anyway…" Mariah turned around, searching for something else in her bag while Lili finished her cuteness induced heart attack.

"And he means it! I've been here for a while, I know it." Lili was almost bouncing on her feet by then, her eyes shining like there were a dozen tiny stars trapped inside them. Mariah could swear she saw the other girl actually glowing a bit. Meanwhile, Levi sighed in relief as he finished his tea, but did not return to the living room just yet, listening while being out of sight. If anyone knew how hard this was for the stubborn Seedling, it was Levi. She took his advice and asked for help for once, he was completely honest when he said he was proud of her.

"Uhm… anyways, I was thinking you could… maybe help me make a fruit basket too?" Mariah scratched the back of her head. "To...add to the gift? I'll pay whatever you ask for."

"Oh? Is that what this whole thing was for?" Lili couldn't help but ask, raising a brow at them while laughing a bit. Mariah glared at her, her lower lid twitching in annoyance, Lili laughed as she raised her hands and stepped away from them.

"Sure thing! Anything to help a friend," Lili gestured for them to follow her, making her way to the storage room, where boxes of fruit awaited their turn to be sold, "and don't worry about payment, it's for a good cause afterall."

Mariah smiled, mumbling a thank you as she followed her, giving her dear Serkah friend a nod as he gave her a proud thumbs up.

As much as rain was always a welcome sight, they couldn't help but be thankful the downpour had slowed down as they walked down the dirt roads, a bag and basket containing the plushie and enough fruit to maybe sustain a small family for a day or two wouldn't do good under the rain.

"No wonder it was chilly these past couple of nights." Levi hummed, carrying the now closed parasol under his elbow, just in case they might need it again. It was very unlikely, but it didn't hurt to be prepared. The two Seedlings nodded in agreement, holding the gifts close to their bodies, shielding them from any stray raindrops that might still fall.

"So, I passed by Sakina's house yesterday," Mariah started, gaining the attention of the other two, "we talked a bit and we're good now… but he-"

"Again? But I helped gather materials yesterday." The three turned their heads towards the new voice that unintentionally interrupted Mariah's words. A tall, dark red Serkah stood with his hands crossed by the door, reddish brown eye staring firmly down at the brown and yellow Lagora that stood in front of him.

"Really? I don't recall seeing you there when we went to Woodsea?" Merodac sighed, his ear twitched slightly, his tail lowered and almost dragging on the ground, some scratches still visible on his skin. Zebulon adjusted his hammer on his back, looking rather exasperated as he sighed.

"I didn't go with your group, Merodac, I went to the Wakuto Canyon with Zak and Miclessa. And also I promised Selene I would be sparring with her today."

"Weren't we supposed to have just one material gathering party?"

"Uh...no? I don't know, no one told us anything." He responded with a shrug.

"Ah...yeah that sounds about right…" The Lagora sighed, muttering something that may or may not have been a few not so nice words, not to anyone in particular, just the sheer frustration he felt at the moment. It was hard to hear as they slowly walked away as the situation, thankfully, did not escalate to yet another disagreement. "Sorry, see you-... Wait, you said you went to the Wakuto Canyon?'

"Uh...yes, why?" Zebulon stopped just as he was about to close the door.

"Isn't that where there had been sightings of that old species that returned? You know...that one our ancestors used to say were able to cause panic in entire settlements?" The Lagora's frustration was quickly taken over by fear as he recalled their Elder's words of warning.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Zebulon chuckled confidently, not showing any signs of worry, "they're supposed to move into new areas slowly, it's going to be safe for a while. And the Chief said someone would warn us before going there if it wasn't safe."

"But did anyone get assigned to that look out job?"

The trio were too far away at that point to hear Merodac's distressed voice, and much less see how Zebulon's expression changed from confusion to realization and dread. Both Serkah and Lagora ran down the back roads, presumably searching for Zak's and Miclessa's houses to try and track down their gathered materials, hoping none of the new things they had brought back had an unwanted visitor inside.

Soon, they were standing before the tree, a few flowers had blossomed on its trunk, almost like it's own personal garden. The spring had lost its natural shine and life thanks to Esna's absence, maybe the gemstones that had been put up in the spirit shrine were also a way to get some of that light back. They were more than happy and thankful to live in this world she opened the doors to for them, but the pain of her loss would still be there for a long time.

Mariah barely even looked at its direction, immensely thankful that she was walking ahead of the other two so they wouldn't see her wince. Even after both of them being reassured no one held any grudge towards them any longer, it was still a sore subject for them. She carefully knocked on the door, her grip on the bag tightening until her knuckles started to turn white as the answer never came. She started to wonder if they were being rude for coming in unannounced, but Levi and Lili came to the rescue, the latter knocking on the door once more while Levi took the bag from her hands and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Chief? Can we come in?" Lili called out just loud enough that someone inside would hear. Hopefully he wasn't asleep. After a few seconds, their answer came in the form of a raspy, but still cheerful voice.

"Hi Lili! And sure."

They were quiet as they walked in, smiling as they waved hello. A tired, yet genuine smile greeted them, dark circles formed underneath soft blue eyes. It was but a far cry of the usual brightness the young Chief was known for, sluggish movements replaced the seemingly unlimited energy he appeared to have. Still, Tethu smiled as always, even if it was small and strained, but the curve in his lips was always there, offering a reassuring gesture even in the most difficult times. Despite his efforts, his state still brought melancholy to their hearts as their smiles faded away.

Suddenly finding herself at a loss of words, Mariah breathed in deeply as Levi offered the bag back to her, silently encouraging her as he usually did. It really wasn't often how she let him know how much he meant to her, it hurt her pride to say it, or imply it in any way, but Mariah had no idea how she would care without Levi and the others. Before she could say anything, that same, tired voice filled the silence, concern evident in his tone despite how hoarse he sounded.

"Mari? Are you okay?" His somewhat jolly expression shifted into a worried frown as he fidgeted with the edges of the blanket, "do you need to sit down?"

That was the final push she needed to finally swallow her pride and open the bag as she walked forward towards the very confused and worried Seedling Chief. She vaguely felt Levi's and Lili's eyes on her, it made her a bit nervous, but she knew if she turned around, she'd find nothing but reassurance and joy in their gazes. Before she could hesitate, Mariah pulled out the cat plushie and offered it to Tethu, whose eyes widened in surprise as he looked between the plushie and Mariah a few times before slowly reaching out and accepting the offering.

"...for you… it's an apology gift." She mumbled, thankfully loud enough so he would hear it. He looked up at her again, then back at the plushie.

"Wha...what for?…" he coughed a couple times after he spoke, his mouth curving into a smile once again as he inspected the plushie, his eyes almost seemed to light up as he squeezed the fabric, bringing the toy close to him in a tight hug. Mariah couldn't help but smile as well, averting her eyes to the side as Lili and Levi allowed themselves to approach.

"...you know what for, you big baby. Just accept the thing." She pretended to be exasperated, huffing as she stepped aside in order to let the other two approach, which earned an eye roll from Levi, who was partially amused and a little bit wondering why he didn't expect that.

"It's so cute! I love it so much." He appeared to ignore her comment, or at least know it was all bark and no bite. There was an expression on his face that could only be compared to an adventurer being gifted with the greatest treasure after looking for it for ages, or a child being gifted with candy, those weren't all that different. It was contagious, soon all three of them, Mariah excluded, were gushing over the toy, patting its head and complementing its pretty eyes. Ah, how they wished cats were real, they wondered if they were as fluffy as they looked.

"Anyways… how're things going? Is the Oasis doing okay?"

...Oh…

"Oh, pfft, yeah everything is fine!" Mariah laughed, her voice cracking a bit at the last few words.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Levi immediately regretted his words, that sounded much more natural in his head, "I mean, of course you're gonna ask, you're the chief and all... it's all good! Did you hear Aslar and Lili led a successful material gathering party yesterday?"

As expected, Tethu's face was somewhere between worried confusion and suspicion. Refraining from saying anything, the look he sent each of them had delivered the message very well. The three squirmed, looking between themselves in a desperate attempt to ask each other for help… only to find their companions just as lost.

"Oh! Almost forgot." Lili stated, clapping her hands, accidentally startling everyone as she picked the fruit basket she had prepared with Mariah and Levi. She had previously set it down to hug the little plushie again, who had been affectionately named "Mister. Fluffy Starlight" by Levi's suggestion. Lifting the cloth revealed all the fruit they had brought. Levi hummed at the sight of them, he always loved fruit. "We also brought some fruit for you! You're gonna need to eat to recover soon, afterall."

Tethu looked down at the basket, placing Mr. Fluffy Starlight beside him. He offered them a thankful smile and a nod. Thank the heavens for his short attention span. Strangely, he didn't eat at all, instead placing it back on the floor after a few seconds, Lili's face shifted to a concerned frown.

"Is something wrong?"

"No… sorry, they're great…" he quickly shook his head, rubbing his thumb on the sheets. "I just haven't… been keeping a lot down."

One could see the exact moment he regretted speaking up at all. Lili's expression was filled with nothing but concern as she fumbled over her words. Lili was sweet and empathetic like that. "Oh… I'm so sorry…"

In the middle of Tethu wasting no time to reassure her and that the gift was amazing anyway, Levi finally joined in the conversation, although it was quickly becoming a competition of who was sorry the most.

"Not feeling any better, Chief?"

The constant exchange of apologies halted for the time being, Lili walking away to place the fruits somewhere better than just on the floor, Tethu quietly looked up to Levi, nodding his head.

"I am!… I'm just tired still."

It did not have the effect the young Chief had hoped. Levi crossed his arms and gave him a stern, doubtful glare, that clearly showed he wasn't convinced. Tethu sighed in defeat, averting his eyes to the little kitty plush.

"...I...I'll be okay soon, Isaac did say it would take a couple of weeks."

The Serkah's gaze softened, there was a hint of sadness and worry that was so

unusual to the usually carefree warrior.

The wise elders always say the truth was often hard to hear, but necessary. No one fully understands the meaning of those sayings until they are facing a situation like that. Everyone wanted to believe everything would go back to being the same soon, but the truth was they still had a long path ahead of them.

It was a nice morning they had, sharing snacks and chatting about so many things they had long forgotten what the original conversation was about. Despite Tethu coughing and sneezing rather frequently and unintentionally causing the rest to worry all over again, it was pretty nice.

The sun was high up when they had to leave, the dark clouds had long since disappeared and the puddles on the roads were already drying up. Regardless of being purified, that land had spent the last four hundred years as a scorching wasteland, the climate would still be hot and dry for a long time.

"See ya, Chief!"

"Get well soon!"

"Bye!"

"See y'all later!"

Their mission was completed, Levi and Lili chatted happily with each other, Mariah should be happy as well, but she silently walked behind them, a thoughtful expression on her face. There was something she had to do… something she promised Sakina she would when she passed by his house earlier that morning.

"You two go ahead, I forgot something."

She walked away without any more explanation, leaving the confused duo behind as she made her way back to the tree house. This was...hard, but if no one else wanted to do this, might as well be her. Sakina wished he could, but with his and the Chief's condition, they might end up making each other worse.

"Hey…. Chief?"

She quietly pushed the door open and stepped in. The Seedling in question sat up, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the sleepiness.

"I forgot something I promised Sakina I would ask. It's important." Tethu immediately looked more alert, waiting patiently as she tried to find her words.

"How exactly do you... do this? Running the Oasis I mean. Things have been going okay, really, but we've been a bit….lost."

His fear quickly faded away, there was something like understanding in his eyes, she was glad he didn't freak out like she expected to.

"It's okay," his voice had gotten a bit more hoarse after he spent so long talking to them, "it's hard to get used to."

"Yeah... anyways, let's cut to the chase. What's the secret? What's the routine?" She crossed her arms, an urgent tone in her voice. She might have sounded a bit harsh, but she really didn't want to bother him for much longer, he was tired and she had to wake him up from a much needed sleep.

"There's no routine," Tethu spoke quietly after a moment to organize his thoughts, "there's balance."

"How do you balance so much stuff?! I- people almost went crazy trying to do everything."

"I don't do everything… not on the same day. Sometimes you need to keep the pests out first, then another time, harvesting the crops has to come first."

She had to take a couple of steps closer to properly hear his quiet voice, he spoke slowly, but Mariah didn't rush him this time. She wasn't good with emotions, but she was trying and hoped it showed.

"It's not doing everything, or giving everything the same amount of attention. It's just doing what needs the most at the moment, and that can change depending on the day...or what happened...or if someone asked a favour."

There was nothing but silence for a few seconds as the toy maker processed everything the chief had just told her. It was… nothing like she expected. Mariah was ready for some mind blowing, secret time managing trick or even some witchcraft, after seeing how much trouble 20+ people were having to do something Tethu does everyday, using magic doesn't sound too farfetched.

"So… you don't have a plan at all? You just wing it?"

"Well… yeah. Esna and I had a list at the beginning, ya know? It helped a lot when we were lost."

Mariah stopped for a moment, processing the new information given to her. This was really nothing like she expected. So everyone's been doing this wrong all that time? Well, now that she thought about it… almost nothing ever worked in the Oasis if it was planned in advance, if you wanted something to have high chances of working out, do it spontaneously.

"I see, yeah that makes sense. Thanks, Chief." Mariah tried her best to smile, to try to give some form of reassurance. She began to walk out towards the door, waving as she did so.

"Mariah?"

She stopped in her tracks, she had forgotten when was the last time Tethu had called her by something else than the nickname he gave her.

"What happened?"

She was hoping he wouldn't ask… how foolish, of course he would. Would people be mad at her for snitching? She had just been forgiven by the other residents and Sakina himself, maybe it wouldn't be so wise to risk it all again. Then, just when she thought she had made up her mind, she found she couldn't lie to that kind young soul, not after everything, not when she's looking right into his eyes, which had nothing but concern. No judgement, no anger, only worry.

"... it's just-"

They were interrupted by a shrill scream. Outside, there was a sound similar to a small stampede passing by the water spring, concerned voices almost masking the sounds of dozens of feet running past them.

Mariah turned her head back to the Seedling Chief, only to find him already trying to stand up, leaning on to the wall for support as he slowly walked to towards the door as well, only to be blocked by the toy maker.

"No! No… you stay here."

"W...what? No!"

She knew he made an effort not to cough, or to show how tired he really was. She wasn't falling for those weak attempts.

"No. You go back to bed, we'll deal with this, I promise." Mariah opened the door and walked out of the tree house, not taking her eyes off of that stupid, self sacrificial seed.

"Chief...stay."

The door closed. The eerie silence was Tethu's only companion as the commotion moved on to somewhere else, far from hearing range.

"...Ugh.."

Without much of a choice, Tethu walked back to his hammock and prayed to the gods he'd be able to sleep again. He somehow felt even worse now, stressing over the residents was really slowing his healing. Sometimes he'd be a bit more awake, free from headaches, then something would happen and he'd end up passing out from fever again.

…

Maybe… he should trust Mariah in this one… not much else he could do.


	6. Some arson to spice it up

The creatures had changed quite a lot ever since the curse of darkness had been lifted from their land. Despite being much safer to go out in the wilderness, there would always be dangers, scrimpoins and sharkobras for example, are territorial and dangerous by nature. As the climate slowly changed and the environment became less hostile, new animals moved in, old ones also returned, and the ecosystems rushed to accommodate them all into its complex web of life. These new residents sparked curiosity and wonder, but it was unwise to not be careful.

The jade spider building its web on a roof was proof of that, its shiny gemstone carapace reflected the rays of the sun as it covered the ornaments shop with a blanket of sticky white web.

"We swear to the heavens, we thought it was a shiny rock…" Miclessa explained as he looked up to it, sighing in frustration. No one suspected a thing when one of them held out a particularly shiny jade and placed it with the rest of their findings. It was not unheard of to find these kinds of rocks scattered around, they thought they had gotten lucky and found one so large.

"This is not your land! Go!" Selene shouted, tossing a pebble at the intruder, who hissed as it brought its legs together, the protective layer of stone shielding its body and giving it the appearance of a large jade rock. Unfortunately, other than inconvenience and delay its web weaving, it did not have much effect.

"Either you get down from my shop or I'm fighting you myself, and my sword is already out!" Shama threatened, his knuckles gripping the handle of his speed tightly. He was, of course, ignored.

"How did you not notice that it was an animal?!"

"It can disguise itself! We wouldn't have brought it if we knew it was a bug."

"It's an arachnid, actually."

"Whatever."

"Y'all better stop fighting and find a way to solve this," Mariah's stern scolding successfully stopped the argument that was sure to break out if left alone. The creature seemed satisfied with its new home and rested peacefully on the roof, "the chief heard that scream and I barely managed to convince him not to leave home."

A tense silence settled before them, struggling to think of any way to make the creature leave without harming the Bloom Booth. They couldn't just jump in or else they'd be trapped in the web, and couldn't use bows and arrows and risk causing much damage on the shop's structure in case they missed. And judging by how few visible weak spots the spider had, they were bound to miss a few arrows.

"What's ….going on?"

"Sakina, hello... feeling better?"

Selene spoke quietly as said Seedling stepped closer, but still far enough from the crowd to avoid getting anyone else sick. It surely was strange seeing the usually loud and upbeat young man so quiet and sluggish, thankfully he appeared to be in much better condition than the day before. Shalara followed close behind, letting out a startled gasp as she took in the sight of the web covered shop.

They really just wanted to buy a small souvenir…

"Don't worry, we got this."

Isaac stated confidently as he and Levi ran towards them, the latter holding a large bug catching net. The onlookers stepped aside to create a path for the two, holding their breaths as the librarian kneeled down just beside the web, searching on his bag until he pulled out an empty beetle carapace. The Seedling poked the web with it, simulating a struggling prey. The vibrations on the web got the jade spider's attention, the young man jumped back as it crawled down the web to inspect what it thought was a newly captured beetle, ready to be turned into its dinner. Without wasting time, the Serkah lowered the net, trapping the struggling spider inside it.

"Nice!"

"Good catch, guys."

The crowd cheered and sighed in relief as the spider was dragged away. Taking off the web would take a bit of work, but at least the Bloom Booth was no longer in imminent danger.

"Uh...hey what are those things coming out…?"

Confused, they returned their gaze to the trapped arachnid, eyes widening as something dark began to escape from the holes in the net. Upon close inspection, the strange dark mass revealed itself to be a few hundred small spiders scattering around, creeping on the grass and crawling on the net. Levi let out a startled yelp as he let go of the net and jumped back to avoid the baby spiders from crawling on his hands. Thankfully, the mother was still trapped on the net… although maybe dealing with one big creature might have been better than the thousands of crawling mini nightmares.

_"It gave birth!"_

Selene jumped back, shaking her leg in an attempt to knock down the arachnids that were attempting to climb on her. The rest of the crowd soon scattered, screaming as they ran back to their homes.

"It's on you!"

Yehani was knocked right off his feet as Lili smacked the back of his head, striking the baby spider off of him.

"I got it!"

"Ow…"

"Oh god, they're everywhere!"

Most of the buildings were now home to at least one or two nightmare crawlers, the tiny things with oversized legs and gigantic eyes stood out in the vegetation as they began to weave their webs, some solitary, others joining forces and making enormous clusters of webs that could cover the foliage of trees.

A small leapard puppy squealed at the intruders, hissing as it attempted to drive them away.

"Daiye, no!"

Roto picked up the furball and made a run for it before the tiny, yet fierce, little thing could get into a fight and possibly be trapped into the cluster of webs.

"What the hell is happening?!" Shakuro took a few steps back as a few spiders stuttered past him, swatting a few that were trying to build their homes on their windows. Behind him, Jamileh hesitantly walked out, whimpering and hiding behind her brother as she saw the chaos unfolding before them.

"Peep!"

"Stand still! We can't help if you're running!"

With their white and black feathers covered in spiders, a poor Noot ran for their life as they screeched in fear, they flapped their wings in a vain attempt to get the things off. Reuben tried his best in catching up to them, but Serkahs weren't made for speed.

Shakuro wasn't exactly a fan of the Noots, the nightmare he had a while ago and the Noots peeking out through his window made him always feel on edge around the feathered folk. Despite that, the Seedling wasted no time in running after the poor Noot as well, quickly outpacing Reuben and grabbing the poor thing's wing.

"Thanks, Shak…" The Serkha gasped for air, taking a few seconds to recover his breath before helping the wise Seedling in taking the spiders off of the Noots' feathers. It didn't take long for his sister to catch up and join in as well, hesitantly swatting them away.

After a couple of minutes of work, the Noot was completely spider free. Although there were some webs still stuck to their feathers. The bird folk tweeted in thanks, but they could still see how uncomfortable they were.

"Let me bring you...to the water spring…" Jamileh carefully took their wing onto her hands, "so we can get water to get that cleaned up."

"Peep!"

The Noot bounced in glee as they were guided to the spring, they couldn't wait to get the nasty, sticky thing off their beautiful feathers.

"...okay...what is happening?"

There were more screams, and more spiders running around. Shakuro caught a glimpse of Levi running off towards the main gates while holding a large net, several other people followed, yelling something about burning "putting that thing back where it came from".

"Basically, mistakes were made."

"Well, yes I can see that."

There was the sound of something crashing, someone was chasing the spiders, smashing them with a piece of broken wood.

"We need the Chief!"

"No way! He needs to rest!"

"Where's Shakuro?!"

He couldn't help but flinch, looking around with wide eyes as it dawned on him that he'd most likely be the one expected to come up with a solution to the utter chaos that was before him. He didn't even see what happened, he was as lost as everyone else.

"...what do we do now?"

Reuben's uncharacteristically soft tone snapped Shakuro out of his panic, something almost numb replacing it, he tried to ignore the feeling of helplessness that kept crawling on the back of his mind.

"...i don't know…"

His job had always been advising, analysing the present situation and giving his view on it, discussing with the Chief on what would be the best action to take. He had an easier time adapting to this than the others, and was usually able to come up with solutions to their problems. It wasn't all that difficult before, he's dealt with things like that all the time. Errors in stocking, unforeseen circumstances during expeditions… those kinds of things would happen occasionally, it wasn't much difficult to deal with them.

That was completely different, now the people were panicking, they were dealing with a creature no one has ever seen before. Even he was starting to panic himself.

"Hey?...hey! Shakuro?!"

Only now he realized that the Serkha's hand was firmly gripping his shoulder.

"You're... looking a little pale there...are you okay?"

He nodded, taking a couple of deep breaths to bring himself back into the present. He was stressed, tired and overworked, but the Oasis needed them now.

"That's it! Get out of my house!"

A door slammed open as Ida chased the arachnids out, slamming her broom on the ground.

"I...I need help in calming everyone down," Shakuro sighed as a couple of Lagoras came to assist the angered Drauk. Their new tactic resumed in burning a few specific flowers, the same one they used for the winged stingers, and using the smoke to drive them away. Thankfully, it seemed to be working so far, if the dozens of spiders escaping the Oasis was anything to go by, "Do you think you could-"

Before he could finish, there was a startled yelp. Both looked back to the mess, finding the three frozen in shock as the last remaining spider began to run around in panic, failing to douse the fire on its back. By Aziz's feet were a few ambers they used to burn the flowers.

"...?"

"It...tried to build a web on the ambers, fell out, ignited itself by accident…" Ida rolled her eyes as she put her hands on her hips, watching the scene with an unamused stare.

"Well, they aren't very smart...but we still-"

"Guys? The fire's spreading."

"...what?"

The brave, yet dumb spider was finally able to put itself out and wasted no time in fleeing the Oasis, but the grass where it had previously passed through was now being consumed by the flames that were quickly spreading out and growing in size.

"...I think this is punishment for our sins." Reuben groaned, following the others to put the flames out. Unfortunately for them, grass was very flammable, they barely had time to put out a small part of it before it had already spread somewhere else. The weather was dry, the grass was covered by spider webs that were also easily burned, all it took was a panicking spider and a few seconds for the fire to grow.

"I can't believe we did it…"

"Yeah, let's throw these out, I never want to see another spider in my-"

Jorah and Hanoch stopped in their tracks as they were greeted by tall flames consuming everything in its path. They almost dropped the boxes they carried, filled with the baby arachnids they were able to trap.

"I know there's a "_burn the house down and get a new one_" saying, but isn't that a little extreme?"

"Help us, you two!"

Reuben shouted, using a bucket of water to douse the flames, Shakuro and Aziz right behind him with sand and dirt.

"Maybe...it could rain again…? Just a suggestion…?" Aziz put his hands together as he looked up to the sky, only to be answered by the remaining rain clouds retreating, letting the sun rays shine above in all its glory.

"Yeah, figured that's too much to ask."

* * *

…

…

…

_Wake…_

Tethu quickly sat up, cold sweat drenching his skin as he looked around, being greeted by the peaceful quiet of his home. The gifts he had received from the residents were carefully placed by the wall for him to organize later, some medicine and water on the stool placed beside his hammock.

There's something wrong…

His head still hurt and his body protested against it, but that did not stop him from getting up, leaning against the wall to recover balance.

I need to leave…

It was so difficult to breathe, he's gotten used to the discomfort in his lungs for the past couple of days, but that was something else. If he hadn't looked down on himself and saw that he was otherwise fine, he'd assumed he was being burned alive. His legs were unstable and he constantly had to lean on something as not to fall, but the urge to leave and resolve whatever problem was going on made him continue despite it.

He wasn't on his right mind, and even if he were, he doubted he would have fought against that instinct. The scream while Mariah was there was still engraved on his mind.

The warm air made it all more uncomfortable, he immediately missed the pleasant cool of his home, but couldn't even think about going retreating. The eerie lack of residents walking around raised a red flag, the spider webs covering the buildings and trees were...strange to say the least. Tethu wasn't sure how he knew which direction to take, maybe it was the smell of smoke, but knew the way.

…

There was soot everywhere, the ashes littered the once green and lively ground with a lifeless gray. Many of the larger trees had survived the hunger of the fire, but their trunks were covered by a layer of black. The pain he felt slowly relented, a cold feeling of dread was quick to take its place.

"We still need more water!"

Leaning on whatever he could find nearby, the Seedling made their way towards the commotion, wincing in pain as a weak began to flow around him, whatever magic he could muster at the moment guiding the air to flow as he wished. Thankfully, it was still strong enough to blow off a nearby pile of sand. More than just a few people yelped in surprise as the wind brought the sand onto the burning melody wheel, successfully putting out the fire that threatened to consume it.

"..."

"He-...hey Chief…"

He didn't answer. The crowd stepped aside to form a path for him as Tethu made his way to the destroyed garden. The dewadems shimmered like stars as they were thrown up, forming a small dark cloud and returning to the ground in the form of clear water droplets that shimmered with magic. The ground hissed as the cold liquid evaporated, cooling down the burned area. Small green sprouts began to peek out of the ground, returning some of the green that once painted their ground.

The effect was immediate, the dead land began to appear just a little more alive, and the discomfort in his heart soothed, the chief let out a relieved breath as small flowers began to bloom as well, the grass quickly covering the ash covered ground.

"...I... I'm sorry. It-it was an accident…"

Shakuro stuttered, unable to raise his head and meet the Chief's eyes, who patiently waited for him to find his words. Tethu wasn't exactly the most talkative fellow, sure he could go on and on about something he liked, but otherwise he preferred to listen and speak only when needed. That was a different kind of silence. He wasn't frowning, crossing his arms or glaring as he usually did when annoyed, but the blank and tired stare was much more unnerving.

They didn't have any explanation to give, that was clear when several seconds passed and all they had mustered was stutters and mumbles.

"...who...is keeping the dewadems…?"

Shakuro flinched, almost unable to muster the words out.

"Jamileh."

"Yahya."

Shakuro and Miura answered at the same time, promoting the two to give each other a confused look.

"Both of them!"

Thankfully, the gods had mercy on them and Potipan had come to their rescue, smiling innocently in an attempt to seem natural.

"...right...tell them to bring it here...I'm not gonna have enough to fix this on my own."

"R-right away."

That...could have gone better.

* * *

They had spent the next few days making sure the Oasis was back on its feet, rebuilding the structures that were no longer usable, replanting the crops and clearing out the webs.

Dawn arrived before long, chasing away the dark shades and painting the sky with a pleasant blue. A figure sat down beside the water spring, leaning against a tree. A cold breeze blew but he wasn't too bothered.

Tethu flinched as droplets of water were splashed in his direction, the cold water sending a chill down his spine. Esna's bright smile greeted him, she let out a mischievous giggle as she submerged once again, swimming towards him and peeking her head out of the water just a bit.

The Seedling responded by sending a small gust of wind towards her, the spirit squealed and submerged once again.

"Oi, what's up, Chief?"

Shakuro smiled as he walked towards them, sitting down beside Tethu at his invitation. Levi slept peacefully under the shade of another tree, some snacks and cards left scattered on the grass beside him. Esna emerged from the water, her ghostly body barely causing any ripples to form.

"Oh, Esna?"

"Hi! Guess what?"

The Seedling hummed, tilting his head in confusion as the water spirit quite literally began to bounce, her tail waving quickly underwater.

Upon seeing him shrug, she lifted her hand and brought it close to him. There was something drawn on it, a holy symbol appeared to have been painted over the back of her hand, a faint white glow around it. Shakuro let out a surprised gasp as he adjusted his monocle, he did recognize it, most guardian spirits had something similar on their bodies, especially those chosen by the gods themselves. Or so the stories told, he'd never before seen one so close.

"Basically, we caused so much chaos in less than two days, that the heaven itself bent its rules to make sure we don't get ourselves killed before time." Levi laughed, rubbing his eye as he stretched. "Now we have our personal guardian angels, yay."

"Esna and Nour will be watching over us until they reincarnate." Shakuro's eyes were widened as he processed their words. He had a bright smile on his face as he turned back to Esna, he instinctively reached out for her hand, but phased through it as expected.

"That's amazing! I certainly didn't expect them to let you guys do this, but if we're getting a guardian spirit, I'm glad it is you two."

"Thank you! I will protect this place with my life!"

Esna sunk into the water, only her nose and up were not submerged, looking like an aquatic predator hiding in the water, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"You're dead, Esna."

"I'll protect this place with my soul!" She retorted before diving back underwater, laughing as she swam around in glee.

"Say...is Nour here too?"

"Apparently they got into trouble after coming back here a bit too many times," Tethu played with the water as he spoke, "I don't think they're allowed to be both here at once."

"He lost rock paper scissors to me!"

"Really?"

Tethu couldn't help but laugh at that, as skilled as Nour was, he did usually lose at that game. Levi joined in their chat, listening to Esna's tales about the spiritual plane with great interest, she wasn't allowed to say much, apparently, but she sure made those small bits of information work, and exploited whatever loophole she could find. That and some sweet, tasty blackmail material for a certain older brother of his.

He let out a sigh and closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him as he listened to Esna's tales. The sun brought a new day, and with a new day comes new adventures. He couldn't wait to see what the future will bring them.


End file.
